Original woodcut trimmed to the borderline with Dürer's monogram signature. Plate from the series, "The Apocalypse" from the 1511 Latin text edition, with Latin text on the verso. In excellent condition.

Image size: 15 7/8" x 11"
Catalogue reference: Strauss 47; Bartsch 71; Meder 173

"Apocalyptic Woman" is Dürer’s depiction of a scene from the New Testament, from the book of Revelation , chapter xii. Dürer’s version closely resembles the illustrations in the Quentell Bible from Cologne, 1480. Revelation xii: (1) Then there was a great portent in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. (3) And there was seen in the sky another portent, behold, a dragon, ruddy and great with seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (4) And his tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and threw them upon the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. (5) And she bore a male child, who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was snatched away to God and to his throne. (13) After the dragon found himself cast upon the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. (14) There were given to the woman the two great wings of an eagle, so that she might fly to her place in the desert, where far away from the serpent she might be nourished for an era, two eras, and half and era. (15) Then the serpent cast from his mouth a stream of water after the woman, so that she might be swept away by the flood. (16) But the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the stream which the dragon had cast out of his mouth.